Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is a type of industry in which the buying and selling of products and/or services is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks, drawing on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in a transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices, social media, and telephones as well. E-commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of electronic business, or B-business, and also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.
An online marketplace is a type of E-commerce site in which product and inventory information is provided by multiple third parties, and consumer transactions are processed by a marketplace operator and then delivered and fulfilled by the participating third-party retailers or wholesalers. In general, since online marketplaces aggregate products from a wide array of providers, selection is usually wider, availability is higher, and prices are more competitive than in vendor-specific online retail stores.